1992 Upper Deck High Series Baseball

Found this in the 3-for-a-dollar box at the hobby shop. This ended up being a pretty loaded pack. Obviously that's a relative term and this is 1992 Upper Deck after all, but the star selection was pretty impressive and somehow this set hasn't been covered yet on A Pack to Be Named Later, so here we go. Here are all 15 cards:

#747 - Julio Valera - In 1992, as in previous years, the high series or high numbers Upper Deck packs included cards from both the high and low series. I'm sure this frustrated some collectors who had already completed the low number set and were buying packs just for the high number cards, but since I somehow have hardly any of these in my collection I don't mind. The first half of the pack contains all the high series cards, the second half the low series.

#721 - Barry Bonds - Diamond Skills Most Exciting Player - This card is a sad reminder that Bonds was an incredible player and likely destined for the Hall-of-Fame even before his bulbous head and biceps the size of my waist. I liked him a lot more in his Pirate days.

#723 - Sammy Sosa - Only fitting that Sosa follows Bonds in the pack. Even though I'm not a huge Sosa fan this is a pretty cool card. Like many of the early Upper Deck cards the back is just as good as the front:

I wonder if there's any chance that this photo could be from the same play as the photo on the front of the card?

#737 - Dan Gladden - Quite an impressive mullet.

#752 - Ruben Amaro, Jr. - I'm ashamed that I did not know this, but Amaro is the current GM of the Philadelphia Phillies.

#728 - Eddie Murray - 400 Home Run Club - Upper Deck used this same "trails" action effect on quite a few cards. 400 is impressive, but Murray went on to surpass the 500 mark before retiring. This is random, but the two players mentioned on the back of this card are Dave Winfield (who at the time was the only other active member of the 400 home run club) and Willie McGee. McGee won the NL batting title (over Murray) in 1990 despite finishing the year with an AL team (he was traded to the Athletics towards the end of the season but his .335 mark with St. Louis before he was traded was enough to best Murray's .330). The reason I mention this is because both Winfield and McGee are in this pack!

#720 - Howard Johnson - Diamond Skills Best Athlete

#531 - Terry Bross - OK, so the first low series card is kind of a dud. When I first looked at this picture for some reason I thought "this guy doesn't look like he's pitched an inning in the Majors yet. A quick check of Baseball Reference proved my wrong though, he actually appeared in 8 games for the Mets in 1991. He would appear in just 2 more games in 1993 for a career total of 10 appearances. He never registered a win or loss.

#448 - Mark Portugal

#364 - David Cone - Cone started the 1992 season 13-7 with a 2.88 ERA before being dealt to Toronto.

#222 - Dave Winfield - Like the Sosa card earlier in the pack, Winfield's card has a pretty good photo on the front, but I like the back even better:

Pretty funny shot of Winfield interviewing Darryl Strawberry.

#177 - Ozzie Smith - Pretty solid trio of low number cards in Cone, Winfield and Smith. Ozzie's card showcases another good horizontal back:


#34 - Giants Team Checklist (Willie McGee) - I was always a fan of Upper Deck's illustrated team checklist cards and this one featuring McGee and Candlestick Park is no exception.

Baseball Heroes #42 - Joe Morgan - The Baseball Heroes inserts were a big deal back in the day. I don't have this Joe Morgan (in fact I don't have any of the Bench/Morgan Heroes run) so this was a pleasant surprise.

#669 - Ron Darling

That was a very fun pack to rip, and for about 33 cents it was much more enjoyable than many $4+ modern packs I've opened. Hope you enjoyed!